Vehicle systems may be formed of two or more vehicles that travel together along routes. The movements of these vehicles may be controlled by an operator onboard one of the vehicles. The vehicles may be communicatively coupled by wired connections between the vehicles. The operator may remotely control other vehicles in the vehicle system by directing control signals to be communicated through the wire or wires that couple the vehicles. One such arrangement of vehicles can be referred to as a distributed power (DP) arrangement.
Occasionally, a vehicle system may not have sufficient tractive power to move the vehicle system through a segment of a route. This situation can occur, for example, when the weight and/or size of the vehicle system is or are too large for the propulsion-generating vehicles in the vehicle system to move the vehicle system up an inclined grade and/or over a peak in the route. This also may occur when one or more of the propulsion-generating vehicles is damaged, has failed, or is otherwise unable to provide sufficient tractive effort to propel the vehicle system up the incline or over the peak.
One or more additional propulsion-generating vehicles can be added to a vehicle system to provide more tractive effort and help propel the vehicle system up the incline and/or over the peak. These additional vehicles may be referred to as banker vehicles.
In order to also remotely control the banker vehicles that are added to the vehicle system, the banker vehicles may need to be communicatively coupled with the other vehicles in the vehicle system by one or more wires. This can require significant time and effort to stop the vehicle system, connect the banker vehicle or vehicles to the vehicle system, and conductively couple communication systems of the banker vehicles with the other vehicles in the vehicle system. During this process, the vehicle system may be required to remain stationary and unable to move toward a scheduled location.